Mirrored Lives
by redwolffclaw
Summary: Shawn Spencer and his real life counterpart are about to have the weirdest days of their lives, as their places are switched while shooting a scene for their latest episode.
1. Free The Man in the Mirror

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: I saw SisAngel's awesome WIP called "A Different World" and fell in love with the idea of James and Shawn switching places and got her blessing to use the idea. (THANKS SISANGEL!) **

**Anyway, for those not familiar with the actor's who play the main characters, here is a short list.**

**Shawn Spencer = James Roday**

**Burton "Gus" Guster = Dulé Hill**

**Juliet O'Hara = Maggie Lawson (Yes, she and James are dating in real life. I didn't make that up)**

**Carlton Lassiter = Timothy Omundson**

**Karen Vick = Kirstin Nelson**

**Henry Spencer = Corbin Bernsen**

**Those are the main ones, if there are any more, I will explain them in the story.**

_**I do not own Psych. Steve Franks does.**_

_**I also do not own James Roday. Maggie Lawson does.**_

* * *

**Chapter 1- Prologue: Free the Man in the Mirror**

* * *

Lightning flashed through the Santa Barbara sky followed quickly by a crash of thunder. Two men burst unceremoniously through the doors of the SBPD, soaked to the bone.

"Will this rain ever stop?" Shawn complained as he shook off his windbreaker, re-soaking his friend Gus all over again.

Glaring, Gus wiped himself off and flicked as much water as he could back at Shawn. "Let's just get the check so I can go home. I have my route to work on tomorrow. That last case we did put me almost a week behind!"

Carlton happened to just be coming upstairs and their antics had caught his attention. This time though, it was a welcome intrusion, because it saved the head detective from having to call them in. "You two. With me." He pointed at them and kept walking. Shrugging in unison, both men trailed after the head detective. "The chief wants you in on this so listen up. We have a victim, Hispanic female, mid to late 30s. We found her in the truck of a car off Elm Street."

Shawn nodded, frowning. "Must have been a nightmare." Once Carlton had given him the customary leer of disapproval, Shawn covertly grinned and raised his fist towards Gus for a bump.

Gus, less than amused himself, didn't return it. "A woman died Shawn." Finally realizing his joke timing was a bit off, Shawn lowered his fist with a pout.

Carlton was already a few steps ahead of them now, and was still talking as they approached his desk. "Strode was just handing me her toxicology report." He handed the file to Gus who immediately realized what the results were.

"This is the same stuff anesthesiologists use to put people under."

Shawn looked over his friend's shoulder. The terminology just looked like gibberish to him. "Gus, please for once could you pretend to not know this I'm only thinking of your coolness factor, which just plunged to a negative."

"C'mon son." Gus quipped before his brow furrowed in confusion. "You know, that stuff's almost impossible to get unless she was in a hospital. They don't have any prescriptions for it. Is it what killed her?"

Carlton shook his head. "She was stabbed multiple times. The sedative could have been to stop her struggle."

Juliet walked up a few seconds later, carefully carrying something. She noticed Shawn and Gus, "Great, you guys are here."

Shawn's eyebrows raised and he gave her a small smile. "Hey Jules."

She smiled back before composing herself. "Woody found this on the body." Juliet presented a beaded necklace with a stone pendant that was solid black on the backside and green with gold on the front. "It could be a unique piece. I just got done showing the chief and she wants you to see what you can _sense_." Juliet stressed the last word and looked at Shawn.

Ever since finding out about his secret, and forgiving him for it, she kept acting as if he wouldn't know he needed to pretend to be psychic. Shawn found it cute, but a bit disturbing due to the fact that too much of her nervousness could give him away. "Sure thing Jules. We'll get right on it."

Gus gave him a disapproving glare, "You'll get right on it. I'm going home to get some grub and sleep."

Shawn nodded and rubbed his head, "I know, you didn't have your nap today... AH!" Gus slapped his hand away and punched him in the ribs. "That was too _hard_!"

Rolling his eyes, Carlton turned to his partner. "O'Hara, we should head to the hospitals and see if our victim was a patient at any of them." Carlton hoped they could at least get some kind of ID out of all the running around they'd have to do. Shawn and Gus had the ability to wait on their task, but he and his partner didn't have that luxury. "Let's go."

"I'll see you later tonight Shawn." Juliet gave her boyfriend a tender look before turning to follow after her partner.

* * *

"And... CUT!" A curly haired man from the director's chair called. Everyone behind the camera started looking back at the take while the actors took a breather before the next scene.

As usual, as soon as they cut, Dulé was on his phone, showing something to Tim, who'd wandered back to the group after the take had ended. Tim laughed and began typing on his own phone.

James smiled reached out and grabbed his girlfriend of seven years, Maggie, before she could get too far away and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, letting her know she did a good job on the scene. "Hey, did you want to go to Joey's later on tonight?"

Joey's was the restaurant just across from where most of the cast stayed in a hotel while they were shooting in Vancouver. They often filmed all the interiors they could at once so they wouldn't have to move around and take up too much time. They often only had a week to shoot each episode, and the shooting schedule was often a tight fit.

"Sure!" Maggie smiled back. "I'm starved. I'll catch you in a few minutes."

As Maggie walked off to grab some food, James looked at the necklace in his hand. The costume person must have gone to a swap meet or something to get a weird necklace like that. It was kind of pretty though. He wondered if he should joking ask Andy, who was directing the episode, if he could keep and use it as next season's necklace. It went so well with his eyes. He smirked at the thought, then came up with a better one. A really good idea he needed to run by some people before they shot the next scene.

"Hey Roday!" His co-star Dulé called to get his attention, he turned and a camera flash practically blinded him. He was half expecting it, the tech savvy black man had been tweeting pictures of the set all day. "Hey, twittersphere..." He heard him mumble.

Rubbing his eyes, he turned around and saw Tim was just putting away his phone. "You up for going to Joey's tonight?" The tall man asked.

"Yeah, Maggie is up for it too." James looked around and easily found who he'd been looking for, "I need to go talk to the big guy for a second." By 'big guy' he meant Psych creator Steve Franks. At 6'7" the man was a wall, and not a hard one to lose either.

Even though Andy was directing, Steve was never far away from the set.

"Steve!" James greeted as he approached. "I need to shoot something by you."

"Go ahead." Steve smiled. The man was like a big kid, a little bit of himself was put into Shawn Spencer and it showed whenever he would get giddy over a fun scene, or would play a prank on one of the cast members.

James held up the necklace he'd been carrying. "When Shawn and Gus are talking about the necklace, I think Shawn would actually put the necklace on and model it. What do you think?"

"That's great! We can see how it works out." Steve's eyes widened as he got his own idea. "We can have Gus continue the no respect joke!"

James knew it would go over well. He looked over his shoulder and saw Dulé was getting in position. "Thanks Steve. I'll catch you later." He jogged over to his mark and got ready to shoot the scene.

* * *

Shawn lagged behind Gus as they made their way to the station doors. His friend had made damn sure he didn't get distracted by the case before they grabbed the check for the last one. Lord forbid they get it tomorrow.

Shawn fiddled with the necklace in his hand as he walked, before shrugging and putting it on. "Hey Gus! How do I look! This really matches my eyes." He batted his eyes for effect.

"You really have no respect for the dead do you Shawn?" Gus chided. "Besides, that's a woman's necklace."

Shrugging, Shawn kept the necklace on anyway. "I'm going to see what I can dig up on the necklace." If it really was one of a kind that might be a problem. It was a lot easier to track mass produced jewelry at stores. "You sure you don't want to come? I'll put up for some ice cream."

Gus froze, "Cotton candy flavored?" He asked with a suspicious look.

"You know that's right buddy."

Giving in just as they got to the door, Gus sighed, "Fine, but we're making it a large! I haven't eaten since lunch."

"Gus... it's only been two hours."

"I don't care!"

**END NOTES: I really needed to keep this one light to counterbalance the tear jerker I'm writing along with it, so expect silliness, but I am going to try to keep it in the vein of the show and as accurate as possible.**


	2. See You on the Flip Side

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Due to how complicated the back and forth between worlds is going to be. I am labeling where each section is at, PSYCH and REAL. I am doing this because if Shawn thinks Dule is Gus, he'll think of him as Gus and I really don't want to confuse everyone when I switch Point of Views.**

* * *

**Chapter 2- See You on the Flipside**

**_Psych:_**

James smiled as made his way to the station exit. The addition of him putting on the necklace ended up going nicely, and the take had been practically perfect. As they reached the doors, James kept waiting for Andy to yell 'cut' but it hadn't come yet. They also hadn't stopped the storm effects, so he went with it and opened the door. It was supposed to lead to a curtain, that hid the rest of the set from the cameras. Instead of walking and disappearing behind said curtain, he nearly fell on his face as the floor dropped away to a step he didn't know was there.

"Shit!" He flailed before being caught from behind.

"Walk much Shawn?" The black man quipped and straightened him up.

James huffed out a relieved breath and chuckled wryly. "Well, that's going on the blooper reel." He noticed his co-star giving him a puzzled look. He was about to say something, when he noticed his back was starting to get cold. "What the−?" Reaching his hand to the back of his shirt, he was surprised when it came back wet.

He quickly spun around and his eyes widened as he realized he was looking out to an eerily familiar parking lot with pink cherry trees, and it was storming.

Dulé gave him a worried look, "Shawn, what's wrong? It's just water."

"What?" James didn't know if he'd heard wrong, "We still rolling?" He moved past him to look into the station set, and noticed…that wasn't quite a set anymore. The cameras were missing. Yards of electrical cords and equipment was just _gone_. The extras were still there though, oblivious to the "goneness" of the set, and were taking notes and talking to people as if nothing had changed.

Everyone had always told James that he was ironically the least observant person they knew, but he knew he wouldn't miss someone taking hundreds of pounds of video equipment out of the room in the last thirty seconds. "Oh my God…"

"Shawn, are you freaking out on me?"

He scowled, and pointed at the station, "Dulé you didn't notice that?" By his friend's blank look, he took it as a no.

Turning in circles, he tried to figure out what was going on. By the warmth, he'd definitely wasn't in Canada anymore. It had been sunny that morning but it wasn't supposed to get above 50˚F. Here, despite the rain, it had to be over 70˚F. That alone was weird, but to his left was the parking lot of the Industrial School for Girls in Vancouver, it was the location they used for the outside shots of the Santa Barbara Police Department. However, to his right was the SPBD set, filmed on a sound stage that was easily twenty miles away from the other.

Now, _somehow_, they were now next to each other, as if… he were actually standing in Psych's version of Santa Barbara.

He'd written for enough horror movies to know what was going on. It had to be some kind of dream, but everything about this _felt_ real. The cold rain on his back, the arm holding him steady, currently attached to someone that, if this really was Santa Barbara, wasn't Dulé Hill. He was talking to Burton "Gus" Guster, pharmaceutical salesman, and fictional character. "Oh, this can't be good."

* * *

**_Real:_**

"CUT!" Someone shouted just as Shawn opened the door to leave the station. The unexpected noise made him jump and look back quickly, so he didn't see the black curtain that was suddenly in his path before it was too late. His sneaker slipped on the material and with a surprised shout, he went crashing to the floor, dragging the curtain rod and a hanging light with him. The latter dropped heavily on his back and head.

"Owwww!" Shawn whined from beneath the curtain.

"Oh my God!" Shawn heard Gus exclaim and a bunch of hands started digging the items off of him. Once free of the fabric, he could breathe again, but his head hurt. Not to mention he had at least ten people around him brushing him off asking if he was alright.

"I'm fine, I'm okay." He grumbled scowling. "Who the hell put a curtain outside the door?"

Gus raised an eyebrow, "The effects crew, you know that. You sure you're okay?"

Shawn lowered his hand from the bump on his head. "Effects crew?"

He never got an answer to his question before Juliet approached and gave him a hug, "James! Are you okay?"

Shawn's head hurt a bit, but otherwise he was fine and wondering why she'd called him James. Making a joke of it he quipped, "James? That's a new one. Remember we agreed to keep the role playing in the bedroom?"

Shawn knew the comment should have at least gotten a blush from his girlfriend, and a disgusted look from Gus, but neither came. In fact, everyone around him laughed like he'd just told a very funny joke.

Gus slapped him on the back and gave him a smile, "Looks like he's okay."

Stepping back in the station, Shawn finally got to look around and gaped. There were at least three cameras set up in the middle of the SBPD with a bunch of people he didn't recognize milling around. There was a table off to the side full of food that Gus had headed to after making sure he was alright.

"Jules, what's all this?" He asked looking worried for his sanity because entire buffet table had appeared out of nowhere.

Juliet looked around, wondering what he was talking about, before her gaze fell on the interviewer in the corner. "Oh! You probably forgot. Buzz Flix is here to do interviews." She pointed over to the corner where someone was currently talking and laughing with Chief Vick "I have to go, I'll catch you later." She touched the sore spot on his head and with a smile, walked off towards Carlton.

"That's not what I...Jules, wait!" Shawn tried to say, but a man he'd never met led him over to the interviewer. "Hey!" He protested.

The man leading him smiled, "Sorry but we have to hurry, we're behind schedule and we still have the hospital scene to do. You get your interview done and, we'll do Maggie and Tim's scene while we wait, okay?"

Shawn scowled, everything was happening so fast, and he had no idea who half of these people ordering him around were. "Hold up there curly locks. Just who do you..."

A brown haired woman darted forward, "Sorry James, I forgot to grab this." She carefully took the necklace he'd completely forgotten he was wearing off of him and whisked it away.

"Wait, I need that!"

"You'll get it back in your next scene, you don't want to wear it for your interview do you?" The man leading him ushered him into a chair in front of one of the cameras,

"Hey Andy!" Someone called and the man looked towards them.

"Sorry James, I'll catch you in a bit." He then walked quickly away.

As he glared after the man, and wondered how screwed he would be for losing evidence, again. A woman walked up to him presenting her hand. Shawn could only assume she was the person doing his interview, but he had no idea what the interview was for. Carlton's sister had done interviews once, maybe it was for something like that. It would explain all the cameras.

"Um, hi."

The woman was beaming at him. "Hi, my name is Chelsea, and oh my gosh I am such a fan!"

Shawn raised an eyebrow and straightened. He knew he was well known around town, but fans? He was flattered. "Really? I guess I am pretty spectacular. Not everyone can be a psychic."

Chelsea laughed along with a few of the people on the sidelines. "Now, I know you're really busy so I'll make this fast okay?" She pinned a small microphone on his shirt. "Oh, I almost forgot!" The interviewer handed him a pillow and the people watching chuckled even louder, as if there was some kind of inside joke going on.

Shrugging, Shawn put the pillow behind him, cushioning his back in the uncomfortable chair and leaned forward. He figured the faster they got to the interview, the faster he'd know what it was about.

The interviewer looked a bit surprised at his action with the pillow, but continued on anyway. "Okay, I am here with James Roday of the hit TV show Psych. How are you today?"

_James_. There was that name again. Shawn started to wonder if he was being Punked. He admitted to himself that he probably deserved it with everything he's pulled on everyone else over the years, but he hadn't seen any tells that people were lying or trying to trick him so he went with it. "I'm alright, but you got the name wrong. It's _Shawn Spencer._" He emphasized his name, hoping they'd get the point.

Chelsea smirked, "Okay then, Shawn... What can you tell me about Psych?"

"Ohhhh!" Shawn finally got it. They were wondering about his business. The middle of a police station was a bit of an odd place for this, and he hoped the Chief wouldn't be upset with him over it, but he really needed the advertisement. "Well Shirley..."

"Chelsea." She corrected him with a slight frown.

He shrugged, "I've heard it both ways."

* * *

**_Psych:_**

Gus didn't understand it. One moment they were talking like normal, discussing food, and the next moment it seemed like Shawn didn't even know where he was. As it was, Shawn was currently bent over, his head close to his knees, hyperventilating. If Gus didn't know better, he'd think that Shawn was having a panic attack.

"Shawn..." Gus tentatively asked leaning his head down next to him.

"Gimme a minute." Shawn held up a finger and breathed heavily.

While Gus nervously waited, Juliet and Carlton exited the building right behind them. Carlton's gaze was surly and both of them standing in their way probably didn't help his mood any. "I thought I told you to go check out leads on the necklace?"

Shawn looked up at Carlton and slumped back over again, "Oh God… this can't be happening. I've played Shawn Spencer too much and I've finally gone off the deep end."

Gus caught Juliet's eye with a worried look, and she went to him, lifting him up to his feet. "Shawn, are you okay? Did you want to come to the hospital with us?"

At the mention of the hospital, Shawn perked up. "Hospital? You guys wouldn't be going there to find out about the body… would you?" To Gus he sounded almost like he didn't want to know the answer.

"Come off it Spencer, we just told you three minutes ago." Carlton moved past them, trying to get out of the rain as fast as possible. "I always knew you had the attention span of a goldfish." He noticed Shawn was still wearing the necklace, "And take that ridiculous thing off, it's evidence and I don't need you losing it."

Obediently, Shawn took off the necklace and presented it to Carlton, who started at him dumbfounded for a moment storming off shaking his head and mumbling about 'idiots.'

Shawn lowered his arm with the necklace still tightly gripped in it, and turned to Juliet, "Sorry, I just got winded is all. I'm fine. Really."

"Winded?" Gus exclaimed, not buying the excuse for a moment. "You walked from the bullpen to the door!" There _had_ to be something else wrong.

Shawn seemed to think for a moment, looking back and forth between him and Juliet before a smiling fairly convincingly. "Oh, c'mon! Can't you guys take a joke... I really had you going didn't I?"

Juliet looked less than amused and Gus interrupted the tense moment, "We'll check out some stores and get back to you if we find anything okay?"

She nodded before casting one last frown at Shawn for the bad humor, following her partner across the parking lot. Gus saw Shawn's smile falter, and he let out a heavy breath as he watched her go.

"I don't believe you." Gus stated and pointed his finger at Shawn's chest. "Something happened Shawn, if you don't want to tell me... fine, but don't think I won't find out." He turned and headed for the Blueberry, the rain was already beginning to soak through his windbreaker and he didn't want to stand outside arguing anymore.

He climbed in and started the car, Shawn climbed in beside him a moment later and they pulled out of the SBPD parking lot. Gus kept glancing at Shawn, who was staring out the window with wide eyes, muttering to himself. They were pulling into the ice cream shop when Gus had finally had enough. "Shawn, you're acting about ten kinds of crazy right now, you know that right?"

"Speaking of crazy, suddenly ending up inside a television show and not knowing how, now that would be crazy. Right?" Shawn chuckled humorlessly and he started breathing heavily again.

"What are you talking about Shawn?"

"... Nothing..." Shawn's eyes turned shifty and he turned to stare out the window again, hugging his folded up jacket tightly to his stomach.

It had to have been the most unconvincing 'Nothing' to ever come out of Shawn's mouth.

As they entered the ice cream parlor, Gus figured getting Shawn's mind on the case would shake him out of whatever had gotten into him. "What do you think about the necklace? Are we going to be able to find out where she bought it? It sounds like a long shot to me."

Shawn pursed his lips and stared at the ice cream thoughtfully, but Gus had a feeling he was thinking about something besides the ice cream. "I think it'll be easier to figure out than you think, Gus."

Gus thought that was cryptic, even by Shawn's standards, he rolled his eyes and picked out his ice cream. Shawn picked out his own flavor and before Gus could dig out his wallet, he was putting a fifty in the server's hand and waiting for his change. The ice cream Gus had just gotten almost ended up on the floor.

Shawn _paid _for something. That only happened when Gus was sick, or another one of his girlfriends dumped him, which wasn't all that often. His friend wasn't exactly insensitive or greedy, just inconsiderate sometimes and the generous action was way out of character.

Apparently Shawn had seen the look on his face and knew he'd done something wrong. "Uh, Jules gave me some money earlier."

Gus grabbed his treat and turned away to hide his expression. He was beginning to think there was more than just something wrong. Juliet knew better than to give Shawn money. She gave him the money _for_ Shawn because the last time Shawn had gotten more than a few bucks at a time, they had to spend an entire afternoon cleaning the chocolate up from the giant banana split Shawn had tried to put together with a hundred bananas and a can of Hershey's syrup. Their new carpet still had giant brown spots they were trying to get out.

A half hour of awkward silences later, they were in their first stop of the day. It was a fairly high end jewelry chain and their most promising lead.

They were immediately greeted as they entered. "Welcome to Randolph's. Is there anything we can help you with today?"

After a long pause, Shawn seemed to snap out of it and took charge. "Hello, my name is Shawn Spencer. I'm a psychic working for the SBPD."

Gus smiled. It seemed all Shawn needed was something in his stomach and he was back to normal. He waited to see what name Shawn would come up for him. He'd long ago gotten used to them, and even started having fun going along with them, testing himself to be just as quick on the draw as Shawn was.

"This is my partner Burton Guster." Shawn stopped and winced, as if he knew how much he'd screwed up, "Uh, also known as Pennywise, the Tap Dancing Clown."

It was a smooth enough recovery, but for Gus, the damage was done. That slip up was the last straw. Whoever this man was, he looked like Shawn, talked like Shawn and acted a bit like Shawn, but now Gus had no doubt in his mind that this man, _wasn't _Shawn...

* * *

**END NOTES: I really wanted to make James smooth and joking, but honestly if you'd just realized you switched worlds and couldn't tell anyone about it, you'd be off your game too. Don't worry though, he'll be back to form soon enough. **

**As for Shawn, he doesn't have the background to go off of that James does, so I figured it would take him a while to figure out what was going on. :)**


	3. Who Are You?

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: This has to be the funnest chapter I've ever written. I laughed myself silly. I hope you will too.**

* * *

**Chapter 3- Who Are You?**

**_REAL WORLD:_**

Tim ascended the stairs of the set after shooting the coroner's scene with Kurt Fuller and Maggie. The latter had to head out to LA almost immediately for a guest spot on another show, so they'd acted the shit out of it and had taken only two takes to get the shot. He had to admit, Kurt was a genius when it came to playing Woody. He often had to bite his tongue when the older man said his lines.

Once on the top of the stairs, he and Maggie saw that there was quite a big crowd around the area that had been set aside for their interviews. Steve Franks was standing there with a huge grin on his face, watching from the back so his tall frame didn't block anyone's view.

"What's going on Steve?" Tim asked curiously, easily craning his neck to get a look at the subject of everyone's attention.

"James did the entire interview in character as Shawn. It's funny as hell."

"Really?" Tim was surprised to say the least. James had always been fairly timid during interviews. Timid, but passionate about the show. Sure enough, he heard his friend as he concluded the interview.

"So, what's next for Psych?" The interviewer asked. Tim looked at Maggie and comically rolled his eyes, making her laugh. That was _always_ the last question, and the press _always_ expected them to give away everything about the next season. Sometimes it was really hard not to though. They were always so excited for everyone to see what they'd been working on.

"Well April," James started.

"_Chelsea!_"

Tim snorted, getting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference even if the interviewer didn't. His eyes narrowed as he noticed something was missing. James didn't have a pillow. He thought for a moment that they hadn't given him one, but it took him a second to see that he had it supporting his back. _Wow, he must really be in character._

James put a finger to his lips, looking like he was in deep thought. "Well, Gus and I are thinking about starting an online psychic help center, open twenty-four hours a day. He'll watch it twenty, I'll watch it three, with an hour for lunch. It'll be great."

Smiling, the reporter turned towards the camera. "There you have it! Straight from, _Shawn Spencer's_ mouth. Don't forget to watch Psych on USA Network." She paused as the camera was turned off and everyone in the area started clapping for James' performance. He seemed to be drinking in the attention with unusual fervor, even doing a bow.

"Wow, James seems to be in a good mood today." Maggie turned to Tim and smiled as she watched.

Tim nodded, "Yeah, seems that way. Hey, I'm gonna give my girls a call. I'll catch you later tonight at Joey's okay?" Their shooting together was done for the day, and he'd promised his family that he'd call them.

"Alright, catch you later." Maggie headed off in the direction of Andy, who had called her over.

He was just taking out his phone when he heard a voice call, "Lassie!" Instinctively, he turned to see James, squeezing through the throng of people, heading in his direction. "Hey man, you seen Jules around anywhere?"

Tim's eyebrows rose at the use of her character's name, but he passed if off as James just messing around. "Maggie's talking to Andy right now." He pointed over his shoulder.

James' brow furrowed, "Who?" Tim was about to reply when James' eyes seemed to catch on something. It was one of the crew's PSYCH coffee cups. "Oh!" He exclaimed and bounded over to pick it up. "When did this come out? I'd think Gus would put the Psych logo on something a little less cool."

He turned the cup around in his hands as if it wasn't the millionth time he'd seen one. James owned one for Pete's sake. "Um..." Tim was at a loss for words, but then something clicked. James had to be playing a joke. Lord knows they'd played enough of them on each other and he felt silly for not even thinking about that. James rushed off before he could call him on it though, heading straight for Dulé.

"Dude! It must be Psych appreciation day or something, look!" James presented the cup, like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "When did you have this done? All that "I have to go to work" stuff this morning was just to distract me while you guys set this up, wasn't it. I'll have to admit, a flash mob interview is pretty original, but it's a bit 2011 isn't it?"

Dulé's eyes widened a bit as James ranted at him, before Tim figured he'd obviously come to the same conclusion he had. It was a joke. He laughed and waved him off, trying to get things serious. "Heh, good one James. Now, on our next scene..."

James face got an upset look on it. "Okay, now the "James" joke is going a bit too far buddy. What is really going on around here, and why are you talking so weird!?"

Tim started to head over, as Dulé looked at his friend, obviously confused with the outburst. "What are you talking about? Are you okay?"

James tsked, "Man, fine. Be that way. I need some air." He walked past Dulé and with the curtain gone from the door, had no trouble getting out.

Standing next to Dulé with the same confused expression, Tim asked, "What's with the Daniel Day Lewis routine? You think that light hit him on the head harder than we thought?"

"Nah, he's just stressed with his movie coming out and all..."

Their conversation, was broken up by a loud and extremely girlish scream coming from outside. The two men looked at each other for a moment before rushing outside, wondering what had happened now.

* * *

**_PSYCH:_**

They were on the road again. The first jewelry shop they had tried had been a dead end. James knew it would be a dead end. Hell, he practically _knew_ who the damn killer was because he helped write the episode,a little. He still wasn't sure what exactly happened, or how long he was stuck here, so he'd decided after leaving the station to just go along for the ride until he figured it out.

After the jewelry shop however, he seemed to be getting the cold shoulder from Gus. He'd tried to start up a conversation, but the pharmaceutical salesman stayed silent and staring forward at the road. He wore the expression that Dulé had perfected by channeling his Jamaican grandmother. It was definitely Gus' 'I'm not talking to you' face. So obviously, something was wrong.

"Gus, where are we going next?" Still nothing. James was starting to get nervous, mostly because this wasn't in the script. Looking out the window, he realized they were on a very deserted dirt road that led into a field. "What the... Where are you going?" Silent as ever, Gus continued driving.

Once they hit the field, Gus stopped the car suddenly, jerking James forward in his seat. He slammed the shifter into park and stared at him. James almost withered under Gus' gaze. It was a quiet rage that James had never expected the timid man to have.

"_Shawn_ tell me something." James didn't like the way Gus said that name.

"Yeah−sure buddy. Anything."

"What color was the tie of the man we talked to at the jewelry store?"

Oh. Crap. James had no damn idea what color the tie was. He didn't even remember the guy was _wearing_ a tie. He had to stall. "Gus, we're in the middle of an investigation and you're asking me what color someone's tie is? C'mon son!" That sounded convincing even to James, and he saw a flicker of doubt in Gus' steely resolve.

"No Shawn. You need to tell me what color that tie was." Gus seemed almost desperate for the answer.

James really tried to remember, but he just couldn't. Taking a guess he stated, "Uh, blue?"

Gus' face fell back to neutral and he quickly got out of the vehicle and started digging in the back seat. James got out and went around to see what he was doing. "Gus what are you...AH!" He barely managed to dodge a very large pharmaceutical case coming at his head.

Gus swung again before James could recover and he got hit square in the stomach. He fell to the ground hard on his back, groaning in pain. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Shawn!" Gus yelled, holding the case above his head, ready to bring it down on James.

Trying to get air back in his lungs, James gasped, "Wait! I can explain!"

"Why do you look like Shawn? Is this some kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers?" James was still trying to regain the ability to breathe, but Gus took his silence as an affirmative. His face fell and he almost sobbed. "Oh my God! It is isn't it! SHAWN! Shawn if you can hear me in there! You gotta fight! Stay with me you hear!"

_Really?_ James thought angrily. "Damn it would you cut it out and let me say something!" He gasped out. Gus stepped back enough for him to get up, but still kept the case in attack position. "Ah, God... that thing _does _hurt."

"You have ten seconds!" Gus threatened.

"Alright! Alright..." James put an arm out and his other one on his chest. "Technically, I _am _Shawn... but not."

Gus gave him an incredulous look. "That doesn't make me feel any better about you being a body snatcher." He tried to get a look at the side of James' head. "Are you a slug like in Animorphs, or a parasite?"

"I'm not a body snatcher! I'm an actor!" James couldn't believe those words had actually come out of his mouth, but they seemed to take the wind out of Gus' sails and the case was lowered slightly. "I don't know how it happened, but I ended up here while shooting a scene."

"A scene for _what_ exactly?"

James licked his lips, "The television show Psych. I play Shawn Spencer, fake psychic detective."

Gus was silent, seemingly searching his face for any sign of deception. James knew man had grown up around Shawn and had been there for Henry's trainings, so he had to had picked up on some tells. It's part of what made him such a good salesman.

"So you're saying," Gus summarized skeptically, "That you are an actor, who plays Shawn in a TV show." James nodded. "And _somehow_ you ended up _in_ the TV show? You actually expect me to believe that!?"

"You were seriously under the assumption that I was a slug body snatcher!"

"So you admit to being a slug!"

"NO!"

They both glared angrily at each other. James knew his story would be a hard sell, but Gus was probably the most superstitious of the group and most apt to believe him. If he didn't, James was completely screwed and wouldn't have any help to get home. Gus flinched as he reached into his pocket, but relaxed when he saw he was just grabbing for his wallet. James tossed it to Gus for proof.

As Gus dug through it and checked his ID, James tried to reason with him. "Look, I know you're pissed, but I don't want to be here and _you_ don't want me to be here. How about we agree to disagree and see what we can do to get me home and get Shawn back?"

Gus' face went neutral again as he pulled out a picture of him and Maggie. "What the hell is this?"

Blushing, James explained, "Her name is Maggie. She's been my girlfriend for seven years. She plays Juliet."

Gus stared at the picture for a moment before putting it away and throwing the wallet back at him. "Fine Jim, but if you're here... where is Shawn?"

James winced, he hated being called Jim. "It's _James_, and I would guess he would be in my place in the real world." He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head at the absurdness of the situation.

Gus suddenly pushed him and pointed a finger in his nose. "This _is_ the real world! I have no idea what your game is, but as far as I'm concerned, you kidnapped my best friend!"

James should have known Gus would be this upset and protective. Finding out your life is a TV show is probably worse than finding out you were unceremoniously dumped into one. Gus was a good guy, he was probably just really scared. He tried to calm him down, "Listen, Gus. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot okay? If Shawn is in the real..." James paused at Gus' glare. "If Shawn is back where _I'm from_, he's gonna be okay. Freaked out, but okay. My friends are a great group and I'm sure they'll take care of him."

Still holding his wallet, he reached in and grabbed out a photo of him, Tim, Maggie, Dulé, Corbin, and Kirstin with their arm's around each other. He and Tim were sporting their hiatus beards and it was one of his favorite photos. "Look." He handed the picture to Gus, watching his face for any sign of recognition.

Gus' breath hitched as he looked at the picture, he looked back and forth between James and the photo a few times. "Oh my God. This is you!? Shawn would _never_ grow a beard. He says it makes his face too itchy." He handed the picture back with a look of wonder. "How is this even possible?"

"I wish I knew buddy." James said before he caught himself. "Sorry, habit."

"It's alright,"

"So, will you help me figure this out?" James asked.

With a sigh, Gus nodded. "Yeah. I can't believe this is happening. It's like something out of the twilight zone."

Suddenly, James' pocket started ringing. "What the?" He pulled out the prop green I-Phone with the Psych logo.

Gus looked at it as well, "Why do you have Shawn's phone?"

"It was a prop." The thing didn't even have an SD card in it, but now it was ringing loudly and flashing a name, **_DAD_**. "Crap." James looked at the phone worried. If Gus figured out he wasn't Shawn in the first hour, Henry would probably know in the first ten minutes. James knew he'd have to avoid him at all costs, or the results would be disastrous and an angry Henry Spencer was a million times worse than an angry Gus.

* * *

**_REAL WORLD:_**

Shawn screamed, loud and piercing. He wasn't proud of it but his world was crumbling and damnit he didn't know what else to do. Santa Barbara was gone! Replaced by a very large parking lot and what looked like warehouses. The song 'Big Yellow Taxi' started inadvertently playing in his head. More specifically the part where they "_Paved paradise, and put in a parking lot._" He knew it would take more than an hour to do that though. It's like he was transported to a different place, but that was _impossible._ Everyone else was there, so they must have been transported too.

He put his hands to his head, trying to remember anything that could have happened between the time he'd last seen Santa Barbara, and now. He'd gone in, talked to Carlton, talked to Juliet and gotten the necklace. He'd then followed Gus and got their check. He put the necklace on and walked into that damn curtain... After that, everyone had started acting weird, calling him James except during the interview. He remembered the woman's surprised tone, and the way she'd said his name. Almost as if she'd been humoring him. Then he remember the cup, the cup that had his business logo on it.

He hadn't noticed before, but there were other things scattered around with the logo as well. Chairs, little foam pop can koozies. He cocked his head, his eyes still closed, had he actually seen a Gus _bobblehead?_

Then there was everyone calling him James. James Roday to be specific. There was a chair in the corner with that name on it, so he figured it had to be a real person. Shawn opened his eyes and berated himself for not noticing this earlier. He'd been distracted by the interview and talking about his business. His dad was going to have a field day with this one, if his dad were even here... wherever _here_ was.

"JAMES!" He heard Gus and Carlton yell, coming out the door he'd just exited.

"Are you okay?" Carlton asked, with more concern for his well being than Shawn had ever seen. He didn't know what was going on, but the others didn't seem to be worried that Santa Barbara had completely disappeared.

Shawn was freaked out. _Beyond_ freaked out, but he'd always felt it safer to blend in and play along. "Yeah, I just had to let off some steam. Didn't mean to scare you."

Both of them let out relieved breaths. "Damn Roday you had us going for a while there." Gus socked him in the arm and went back inside shaking his head. Carlton however had stayed outside, and was giving him a weird look.

"What's going on James? You seem off."

Waving a hand at him, trying to play off his earlier behavior, Shawn scoffed. "Don't be silly, I'm perfectly fine. Great even."

"Okay then." Carlton still didn't seem convinced. "I need to call my kids, I'll catch you later. Let me know if you need to talk."

Shawn put on his biggest smile. "Sure. I'll catch you later man."

As soon as Carlton, or whoever it was, left. Shawn sagged against the wall. It was worse than he'd thought. They looked like his friends, but they couldn't be. Their mannerisms were off, and Carlton having kids, most of all offering to _talk_ to him. That just wasn't possible.

One thing was for sure, if he was going to blend in until he found out what was going on, he'd have to figure out who this 'James Roday' was, and fast.

* * *

**END NOTES:**

**Gus and his superstitions are always comedic gold.**

** Shawn hasn't quite figured out what's going on, but he's always been really quick on the uptake when he wants to be, so you know he won't be in the dark for long :D**


	4. Truth is Stranger Than Parallel Universe

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: I want to thank everyone for their awesome reviews. I am so fangirling with this story and want to add so much, but I have to keep reminding myself that there is a story here, and keep'er rolling.**

* * *

**Chapter 4- Truth is Stranger than Parallel Universes**

**PSYCH:**

Gus covertly glanced at the man next to him as they drove to their latest destination, a crime scene they were called to just in the nick of time. Gus doubted James wanted to have dinner at Henry Spencer's house any more than he did at that point, so both were pretty relieved to have an out land in their laps.

According to Juliet, who'd ended up calling his phone because James' was busy, they were at the hospital when a call about a murder came in. The body had been found in a dumpster, bearing the same injuries as the woman who'd been brought in that morning. When Gus had told James about it, he didn't seem all that surprised. He had the sneaking suspicion that the other man was hiding something. Gus licked his lips nervously, he had so many questions he wanted to ask, but James had been quiet since he'd revealed who he really was.

Shawn was quiet, sometimes, but only when he went into one of his memory flashbacks, or when he was seriously freaking out about something. James seemed to be a stark contrast. His quiet was more like a serene silence that Gus wasn't used to. He could tell this guy's personality was like a well; it was so deep you couldn't see the bottom of it. Shawn's was more like a mud puddle; It was so clouded by the crap swirling around beneath the surface that you could never quite see how deep it actually was until you fell in it.

"Uh, James?" Gus asked, finally working up the nerve to say something.

James looked up, "Hmm?"

"If you're really an actor, what have you been in?" Gus figured he might as well get to know the dude if he was going to be hanging with him for a while.

James paused for a moment, considering the question. "Well, I do a lot of theater, even have my own company "Red Dog Squadron", but I've done a few movies and TV series too."

That got Gus' attention. "Oh! Which ones?"

"I was in the TV series Miss Match."

"Never heard of it."

"The movie Repli-Kate?"

"Nope."

James pursed his lips a bit before snapping his fingers as if he'd finally thought of a good one, "Dukes of Hazzard?"

Gus grinned, "Now that one I've seen." His grin fell a bit when he remembered he'd gotten it by bootleg. "So, who did you play?" He said quickly, before the "vault of secrets" accidentally blurted that out. "One of the extras?"

"What? No man, I was the racer. The one Bo and Duke were going up against. Billy Prickett." James explained.

"That role was played by Matthew McConaughey." Gus narrowed his eyes, getting very suspicious again. If the guy really wasn't an actor who'd suddenly switched dimensions or something, he could be sitting by someone who was a few apples short of a bushel.

"That can't be." James said indignantly.

"Oh? And why not?" Gus demanded as they pulled up to a stop light and he was able to face him.

James rolled his eyes. "Well it's obvious, because that roll never called for taking your shirt off."

Gus stared at James for a few seconds, before both of them burst out laughing. He almost forgot for a moment that this man wasn't Shawn.

He figured he'd test another theory while he was at it since he'd gotten James to be so chatty. If James played Shawn, who played him? "So, this other dude from where you're from that looks like me..."

"Dulé Hill."

Gus nodded, "Yeah him! What did he play in?"

"He was on the show West Wing for a long time. He played the president's aide, Charlie Young."

"You sure it was Charlie Young?" James nodded and Gus scoffed. "I've never missed an episode, and I know for sure that Deon Richmond played Charlie."

James all of a sudden started snickering, then the snickering turned into full on roaring laughter. Gus had no idea why, until he thought about it and clenched his teeth in annoyance before shouting. "I'm NOT BUD!" James' laughter only got louder.

Gus frowned and stared forward as the light turned green. James' laughter died down quickly and when Gus glanced back at him his sympathetic crier's instinct was on red alert. The guy honestly looked really upset and lost. He had to think of something to distract him, at least until they got to the crime scene. "Um, do you think we should be figuring out how to get you back home?"

"Yeah, we really should." James nodded and sat up straighter in the seat, "It's just not sinking in man. I keep feeling like I'm just minutes away from waking up on the set, with some sort of 'weird dream' story to tell." James chuckled wryly. "I'm _inside_ the 'Psychverse.' I have a thousand opportunities to see what it is like here, to have fun, to be care free... and all I want to do is go home."

Gus pursed his lips, "Then there's Shawn."

"What about him?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're seriously asking that?" Gus scoffed, "This is _Shawn_ we're talking about. Can you imagine what he's gonna do when he finds out where he is? I hope your credit card has a low max."

James' eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God..."

Gus cursed his big mouth. "Dude, you can't worry about that right now. Just, " Gus thought fast before James had even more of a nervous breakdown, "...worry about getting through this crime scene. You think you can act like Shawn long enough for us to fool Lassie and Juliet so we can get back to figuring out how and why you're here?"

James rubbed his nose and sighed. "Yeah... you're right. I'll figure out something. I just need to plan things out a bit."

_Plan things_? _This guy really isn't anything like Shawn. _Gus thought as he pulled up to the crime scene.

Police cars were scattered about the area and crime scene tape was stretched across the alley where the dumpster sat. It looked like the cops hadn't removed it yet, and were still gathering evidence.

Juliet looked back at them as they approached and Gus already noticed that James was walking a bit too stiffly, avoiding looking at the dumpster, that had an arm currently hanging out of it. It earned the actor an elbow in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"You're going to blow your cover."

"I'm trying! It's not easy you know!" James retorted in a fierce whisper.

"C'mon son!" Gus hissed back.

"_You _c'mon son!"

Juliet must have realized they were bickering and she pinched the bridge of her nose before holding her hands out in a stop gesture. "Guys! Would you stop? We're at a crime scene." They both looked a bit ashamed as they followed her to the dumpster.

Carlton took that time to walk up, "What took you two so long? Did you hit every drive through food joint between here and Goleta?" He gave them a wide sneering grin.

James looked at him and shot back, "Sorry Lassie, we would have brought you something, but they didn't have any crow for you to eat when I solve this case first."

Gus' mouth dropped open. _Damn, he _is_ good._

Carlton growled and moved forward a few steps, but was held back by his partner. "Carlton. Stay." He stopped but gave James a glare that could wither roses.

Juliet continued, remaining professional despite the guy's antics. "We just got an ID off of the victim before you showed up. 'Marcus Moray.' He's the husband of the woman we found earlier. We got her name from the hospital just before being called here. 'Jasmine Moray.' They ran a local higher end consignment shop."

"What about the necklace then?" Gus asked with a frown. "We don't really need to find where it goes anymore do we? I mean, if they own a consignment shop, it's pretty much a given it's from there."

Juliet sighed. "I don't see why you should have to. Gus is probably right about it being something in their inventory."

"Wait," James glanced at Gus and put a finger to his head. "I'm sensing... that if Jasmine had the necklace, she may have been trying to meet with someone over it, and it could be the reason she and her husband were taken out."

Carlton snapped his fingers and pointed at James, "We have to figure out if it was the customer she was meeting with, or the owner, but how?"

"They should have records for everything in the store, and the names and addresses of the people they are selling stuff for. My aunt used to run a consignment shop and that's what she did."

James gave him a puzzled look before addressing the issue again. "We'll check out the shop while you guys see if Woody can find anything."

"It's not your job to order us around Spencer!" Carlton spat out, but paused, trying to come up with something different but failing miserably. "O'Hara, let's go see what Strode can find." He mumbled and walked away.

Juliet watched her partner go and moved closer to James. Too close for Gus' liking. "So, did you want to go have dinner tonight after we're done for the day? You've been wanting to go to that new Chinese place forever."

James smiled as she put a hand on his chest, but caught Gus' eye as he frowned and gave him his best 'I will kill you' look.

"Hey, uh... rain check Jules." James took her hand and moved it off him. "I really want to get this case out of the way, ya know?"

Juliet gave him a scrutinizing gaze before Gus jumped in to save the day. "We really should get to checking out that store." He grabbed James' arm and dragged him away before Juliet could argue. "Catch you later."

Gus pushed James all the way to the Blueberry, despite the other man's protests. "What?" "Ow!" "Stop it!" "What are you doing?"

"What are _you_ doing!? That's _Shawn's _girlfriend. Not yours." Gus poked James' chest.

James swiped his hand away. "I know that, it's just... I miss Mags."

Taking a deep breath, Gus went out of overprotective mode. He could understand the confusion James was feeling. Hell, it took a lot of reminding not to call James Shawn.

"So, back there when you were talking about your Aunt's consignment shop..." James trailed off.

Wondering where this was going, Gus shrugged, "Yeah. I went there a couple times as a kid, so?"

"I've never heard that. I don't think it's ever even been in a script that you had an aunt, much less one that owned a consignment store."

Gus curled his lip. "What _is it _with you? I'm not a puppet that walks around saying lines from a script. I'm a real person. Sure, you may know stuff about me, what my favorite foods are, things I've said, but here's a newsflash for you: We don't stop living just because you stop filming." He ranted, and ended the discussion by getting in the car.

It took a couple minutes, but eventually James joined him. It took another couple of minutes for James to speak, "I'm sorry. I'll try not to say that kind of stuff anymore, okay?"

For some reason, just like with Shawn, he couldn't stay mad at James. Gus' anger deflated and he turned to face him, "Okay dude. As long as you keep the TV show stuff out of it. I think we'll get through this." He paused and smirked at the actor. "You did good back there by the way. Did you see Lassie's face?"

James smiled, "Yeah. I figured that would get him. I also figured something else out back there." Gus' eyebrows raised as he waited for James to continue. "The necklace. In the scri... er, what I was working on back home, the last thing I did before getting dumped here was put it on." Gus opened his mouth, about to gripe at him for not trying to put it on again but James stopped him, "I know what you're gonna say. I've already tried wearing it again before getting in the car. Nothing happened. Maybe, if we find the person who owned it, we can find out more about it."

"Sounds like a plan." Gus nodded and started the car. "That or we can hope that Shawn figures out something from your side."

"You know that's right." James quipped with a wide grin.

"Hey!" Gus frowned. "That's my line."

* * *

_**REAL:**_

Tim stared, dumbfounded. He honestly didn't know what to think at this point. James had been acting very strange since his knock on the head, but this was taking the cake...

He had noticed something was up after he'd gotten out of his gray detective's uniform and back into his dark gray polo and jeans. (He'd also gotten the grease out of his hair and it looked nicely ruffled, just how he liked it.) As he came out of the changing room, he'd seen that James was still in his outfit for the episode and they had stopped shooting at least twenty minutes ago, so he ended up following him around a bit to see what he was up to. He knew better than to ignore James when he was sneaking around. He'd been pranked too many times.

James seemed to dig through almost everything he came in contact with, not to mention glancing at scripts, papers, and listening in on conversations. He mumbled to himself a lot, and seemed overly nervous. Finally Tim followed him to the break room, and he looked around the corner to see if the coast was clear, as if he was trying to avoid running into anyone.

It wasn't all that strange when James stepped away for a bit, but coupled with everything else, it was odd behavior even for that. If James wanted to be alone, he'd just say so and everyone would back off. He didn't need to sneak around like a paranoid weirdo.

Reaching out a hand, Tim tapped James on the shoulder and the man let out a shriek of surprise. Flinching back, Tim felt bad when James spun around clutching his chest and breathing hard. "Dude, don't DO that!"

"You better get changed." Tim warned, "Maggie is waiting for you upstairs. We're about to head out to Joey's... what are you doing in here?"

For a moment, James looked like a deer in headlights, but seemed to recover quickly, "Just, ya know... hanging out. It's been kind of crowded and I wanted some time to... uh, clear my head."

Tim raised and eyebrow, "What's up with you today? You've barely talked to anyone, and now you're slinking around the set, what gives?"

"Just having one of those days." James mumbled, looking at the floor.

Sighing but sympathetic, Tim clapped him on the back good naturedly. "Get dressed. Maybe a night out will help."

James eyes widened and he nodded mechanically, staring at Tim like he'd just grown a second head. "Uh, sure buddy... I'll just..." James backed up pointing over his shoulder, "Get dressed..."

"The dressing rooms are that way." Tim pointed the opposite direction.

"Yeah. I knew that." James laughed and hurried down the hall.

"Okayyy..." Tim huffed out a breath and headed back upstairs. James was definitely off today.

Maggie met him in the main "bull pen" area of the set, she was already dressed to leave, and had her and James' red, bull mastiff named Francis, affectionately called Franc, on a leash beside her. "Did you find him?"

"Yeah." Tim pointed over his shoulder, while giving Frank a scratch. "He's seems a bit down. I think the stress from his movie is really getting to him." Maggie frowned and looked concerned. "That or he's finally gone of the deep end and may come to work tomorrow with his underwear on his head." He 'oofed' out a sharp breath when Maggie smacked him in the chest.

Still giving him a faux grumpy look, Maggie stated, "At any rate, Franc will sure be happy to see him tonight. He hasn't been home much lately." Franc was practically attached to James' hip when they were together, and Maggie had brought him as a surprise. "I'll have to leave him in the car at Joey's but he'll be fine for a bit. Won't you?" Maggie was making kissy noises at the dog when James emerged from the dressing room, in a T-Shirt with his jacket over his arm and stocking hat hanging out of it.

James immediately noticed Franc and went into cute doggy mode. "OH MY GOD! He's so cute!" Then proceeded to smush his face into Frank's and make kissy noises. Tim shook his head and wondered how a grown man could love dogs that much, completely blocking out that he acted the same way around his own dog.

After rolling around a bit, getting thoroughly slobbered on, James sat up and asked, "Who's is he?" Looking between the two of them expectantly.

Tim, open mouthed, looked at Maggie who was smiling, figuring he had to be joking. "I dunno. It's been so long since you've seen him I guess you don't recognize him." She also didn't catch James covertly checking out the dog's nametag.

"Yeah Francie," James baby-talked, "It seems like it's been forever..."

Tim cleared his throat. "Everyone is probably waiting for us. We should get going." Maggie nodded and James bounced up from the floor ready to leave with her. "Say, Maggie... Since your car isn't all that big and you have Franc, is it okay if I take James to Joey's? It's right across from the hotel, and I have some scene stuff to talk to him about anyway." He definitely wanted to talk to James, but it didn't have _anything_ to do about filming scenes.

Giving him a puzzled look, Maggie shrugged. "Sure, if it's okay with James."

James was about to open his mouth, but Tim already had his arm around his shoulder. "Sure it's okay with him. We'll catch you in a bit." He grinned at her widely and, with James in tow, left the set.

Once they were outside, James shrugged him off and looked over at him with a suspicious glare. "Okay, what's with the grabby-ness?"

Tim squeezed the bridge of his nose. "James, I know you don't want to tell me that something's wrong, but something's _wrong._" He stressed the last word, and let it hang in the air. "Did you hit your head harder than you want us to know? I can take you to the hospital." He could have sworn he'd seen a flicker of fear in James' eyes before the all too familiar cocky smile was back.

"I don't know what you mean..."

"Bull." Tim said simply and crossed his arms.

James suddenly looked him in the eyes. Tim realized that James hadn't actually looked him in the eyes all day, and now he had, Tim could see that his friend was scared. Terrified even. James had just been hiding it extremely well. It had to be a head injury, because it almost seemed like James had no idea who anyone was.

Testing a theory, Tim asked, "Hey Jim," James looked at him expectantly and didn't even correct the hated use of the short version of his name. "What's my name?" Tim figured he would start out with easy questions, then work his way up to harder ones.

James' eyes flew back and forth, as he tried to come up with the answer to something he'd known for almost a decade. Finally, in an unsure tone he asked, "Corbin?"

"OKAY! Let's go to the hospital now." Tim started leading his concussed co-star to the car so he could take him to the hospital.

"Damn it! It was either that or Tim." James cursed and tried to shrug him off again.

Tim held on, "You had to _guess_ my name! I'm taking you to get some help."

"I'd rather go with Jul−MAGGIE... I'd rather go with Maggie."

"Too bad, you're going with me, James."

"I'm not..." James started.

"Are too." Tim got to the passenger's side and waited for James to get into the car voluntarilly.

"No! I mean I'm not−" James paused, a wild look came to his eyes, as if he wanted to make a run for it.

Tim had never known James to be this difficult, ever. It was almost like dealing with his daughters when they were young enough to scream and cry when he and his wife went to the store and didn't get them candy. Like a spoiled child.

Finally reaching the end of his rope, Tim growled, "Not _what_ James? You're not _what!?_"

"I'm not JAMES!"

The two men stared at each other for a long moment. Tim's stomach had felt like it dropped to his feet. "What...?"

James grabbed his hair in frustration and grit his teeth, when he let go, it was almost standing on end, making him look like even more of a crazy person, "Damn it I can't deal with this crap! You're Lassie, but not Lassie... Jules is still smokin' hot but is named Maggie. By process of elimination, if he's not named Corbin, Gus is something called a Dulé, which sounds a lot more like some kind of delicious dessert, rather than a name." Tim started to covertly look around for some kind of help. They were friends, sure, but this was so much above his pay grade...

James, or as he stated... "Not James" kept ranting. "What the hell am I supposed to do. I have no fricken _clue_ who you people are, or why I'm supposed to be this _James_." He did air quotes with his fingers. "I'm stuck in some kind of world where everyone and everything I do know is written in a script for a TV show, and the only person that I have to talk to is..." He dramatically pointed at Tim, "You! Who's all of a sudden shown more emotion in _five minutes_ than I've seen in the eight years we've known each other." Finally done, he was breathing heavily and quickly.

"Okay..." Tim tried to placate him. "If your name isn't James, then what do I call you?" He already had an idea what was coming, but he was hoping it wasn't. If it did, his day just got a lot more complicated than he'd wanted it to be. _Please just be a joke._ He prayed.

"Shawn. Spencer."

Tim let his head drop, "Of course it is.._._"

* * *

**END NOTES: I had to add Frank. There was no "not" adding him. If any of you have seen what he looks like, OMG he is a beautiful dog.**

**Anyway, when trying to figure out who's point of view I want to write in, I often write more than you get to see. I had someone recommend to me that I should add one of the scenes I wrote. **

**It is the first part of the REAL WORLD side of this chapter, but in Shawn's perspective. It isn't the whole part, just enough to get a laugh or two though. :D**

**Like I said though: NOT A CHAPTER JUST A TIDBIT**

**EXTRA SCENE FROM CHAPTER 4 : SHAWN'S POV**

Shawn peeked around the corner. The coast was clear. He quietly snuck on the balls of his feet towards what looked like a break room. He'd just barely missed getting caught by the really tall guy a minute before, and Shawn didn't want to run into anyone else until he could figure out what was going on and come up with good enough bullshit to get by.

Just by walking through the SBPD and paying attention to the details, Shawn had already figured out he was on some kind of set. For a movie, or a TV show... he didn't know yet, but it was all really unsettling. His rational mind first came up with the most rational explanation for what was going on. A dream. He'd had some doozies before, but this one was taking the whole pineapple, if it was a dream. The second thing his mind came up with was a bit more realistic, but still kinda out there; He really was this James guy, and the hit on the head caused amnesia and he only _thought_ he was Shawn Spencer.

The third was just insane and couldn't be anywhere close to the truth, but it was like a sliver in his mind that wouldn't go away. He'd been thrust into some kind of wonky parallel universe where everyone was their exact opposite.

From what he'd seen it wasn't an _evil_ kind of opposite, if that were truly the case, but more of a personality opposite. Carlton seemed like an openly nice and caring guy. Gus was cool, he even talked like a player. Juliet seemed very outgoing still, but she had a wildness to her that was a stark contrast to _his_ Juliet, who was more by the book... unless she was undercover.

"God, I'm thinking too much like Gus." He mumbled and mentally slapped himself. There was a rational explanation. There had to be.

Finally deciding to take the chance and step out, Shawn was more focused on looking at what was in front of him, than anyone behind him. So when he felt a tap on his shoulder just as he was about to move, he let out a loud shriek of surprise and spun around to see Carlton flinching back in surprise.

Clutching his chest and willing his heart to start beating again, Shawn griped, "Dude, don't DO that!"

Shawn quickly took in the other man's appearance. He'd gotten out of his suit and was wearing a dark gray polo and jeans. His hair was shaggy, no longer slicked back, as if he'd just washed it. It looked good on him. "You better get changed." he warned, "Maggie is waiting for you upstairs." Carlton explained. "We're about to head out to Joe's... what are you doing in here?"

_Think think think think... _"Just, ya know... hanging out. It's been kind of crowded and I wanted some time to... uh, clear my head."


	5. Going off Script

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**Sorry about the lateness but I wanted this one to be good.**

**We get some James in action and Shawn realizing the repercussions of having your life as a TV show. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5- Going off Script**

**PSYCH:**

James stared out the window most of the way to the shop while playing with the necklace in his pant's pocket. The rain had stopped but the dark clouds had stayed and as the sun set, it left the landscape dull and muted. He absently thought that he really needed to change. The mud on his clothes from falling when he was attacked by Gus had dried, despite his best efforts of getting it off before getting in the car, and the feeling was uncomfortable to say the least.

Neither man had really talked since leaving the crime scene. They had started out chatting, but both got quiet after the first few minutes. Things were just too weird between them to really have more than a superficial conversation. He had to really try to see Gus as Gus and not as Dulé acting as Gus. James imagined it was the same with the other man. It was too complicated… and he missed Maggie.

The worst thing about the situation is that he wished he'd gone through the episode script more carefully. They were on one of their first scenes when he'd been zapped to what he kept thinking of as "Psych-ville," and besides a few creative touches, he hadn't written much of the episode now that he thought about it. He kept having déjà vu moments, but couldn't remember much from his complete read through the month before.

"I think this is the place."

James looked up at Gus' statement and saw a very stylish building that seemed to be made to look old fashioned, but in a tasteful way. It was a cherry wood frame with stained glass windows. "Nice." They'd been planning on doing location shots later that week, when the guest stars came in, but in James' opinion Andy had picked out a great building.

Gus parked the Blueberry outside the second hand store, and looked up at the sign seeing the business was aptly named "Second Time Around."

"Huh," Gus raised an eyebrow. "Fitting."

James smiled. He thought so too, but he stopped short of telling Gus that he'd been the one to help figure out a name for it, one of the few things he'd added.

Something, however, was really nagging at the back of his mind. Something happened here. It was important…

"You coming?"

James realized he hadn't left the car yet and was still staring at the sign. "Sure man. Coming."

The windows in the shop were dark. "It doesn't look like anyone's home." Gus commented peering through the glass, squinting.

"Of _course_ they aren't home!" James said exasperatedly. "Both the owners are lying in the morgue right now."

Gus glared at him, "Most people have employees _James_." He spat out and headed to the door. He tentatively turned it and surprisingly, it opened. His glaring expression turned nervous. "Don't people usually lock their businesses?"

"An open door is an invitation, right?" James shrugged, knowing it was definitely something that Shawn would say.

Raising a finger, Gus pointed it at James menacingly before pushing the door the rest of the way open. Both men gaped at what they saw.

The place was absolutely ransacked.

Clothes and knick knacks were strewn about in careless heaps while display cases were either jimmied open or smashed in. They could barely get past the door without walking over clothes and shattered objects. "Wow, whoever this was must have been pretty desperate. Look at this place!" He kicked a broken and now unidentifiable figurine out of the way.

As Gus tried to wade through the mess, James' instincts screamed to get the hell out of there. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. _You're just jittery, figure out this stupid necklace and you can go home._

"Do you think the murderer did this? I mean, the door _was_ unlocked..."

"That's too much of a coincidence man, and from what I know about this place, there are no coincidences." James pointed out and looked at the display cases and glanced behind the counter and groaned. "It's going to be impossible to find any records in this place now."

Gus came up beside him, "What?" Then he too noticed the paperwork, ripped up and scattered. "Oh dude."

James rubbed his face with his hands. This whole situation just became a lot harder. He may even have to stay here for days... DAYS! When he opened his eyes again, they both heard a creaking noise and looked around the store. Everything was still. Gus shrugged and went back to looking through the rubble for anything useful.

However, James had frozen. It had just come to him what was going to happen next. It had been one of his favorite parts in the script, and he couldn't believe he hadn't remembered earlier...

"LOOK OUT!" He yelled and tackled Gus to the ground behind the desk as bullets started to fly above their heads, destroying more of the cases and spraying them with shards of glass.

They both screamed as sharp shards rained down on them and footsteps ran for the front door, slamming it back shut as they escaped. It was over a minute before either of them dared to move and James realized he still had his arms wrapped tightly around Gus, protecting him. He slowly let go, untangling his limbs carefully to avoid getting cut on the glass now coating their bodies. "You okay?"

Gus didn't move, he made a few pathetic whimpering noises and stared straight ahead.

"What?" James followed his gaze and his eyes landed on a pale hand sticking out of the mess of paperwork behind the counter. "Well, it looks like they did have employees..." James hadn't meant to say that out loud, but his brain hadn't really been working at that moment. He was staring at an actual dead body. It wasn't a prop, or an actor painted to look like a corpse, but a _real_ dead body.

James pushed himself to his feet as his stomach flipped over and threatened to expel everything he'd eaten that day, which was pretty much just the ice cream. He turned away and took deep gasping breaths. He never liked being sick, but there were times as an actor that you had to suck it up and push through it. This was one of those times.

He jumped when he felt a hand on his back but realized it had to just be Gus. "You okay?"

Nodding, James attempted to stand up straight. "I'll be okay. I've just never seen a dead body before."

"You get used to it." Gus said in a surprisingly tender voice, "Shawn always used humor to get through that stuff, he's good at hiding how much it really affects him."

"You didn't sound used to it."

"I don't always almost land on dead bodies on a regular basis either." Gus defended. "We should call Lassie and Juliet."

James agreed. They might be able to get the guy before he got too far away, or at the very least, get some fingerprints from the items the murderer had thrown around. He frowned, looking at the mess of papers they'd have to look through. He bent over and looked at some of the top slips as Gus called in the body, purposefully not looking anywhere near the corpse.

"James." Gus said quietly as he hung up his phone, disturbing him from his search.

"Huh?"

Gus' face had a pinched look, as if he was trying not to get emotional again. "You saved my life." He stated simply.

"Yeah. I did didn't I?" James smirked up at him. "Shawn would have done it." In fact, he was sure in the script, Shawn actually _had_ done it. Now that it happened, he thought he remembered that Shawn had seen the subtle shadow in the doorway after it creaked and had shoved Gus to the ground.

"How did you know that was going to happen?"

James winced. He knew Gus didn't like any allusions that his life was a TV program. "I sorta read it somewhere."

"Read it somewhere..." James could see the gears working in Gus brain, and the realization of what he'd been talking about. "A SCRIPT!? You seriously knew that was going to happen because of a script didn't you!" James nodded sadly. "Oh my God! You know who the killer is don't you! We could have gotten him any time and you didn't say anything! I could have died!"

"NO! It isn't like that. I can't remember half the stuff I've read about it, we hadn't gotten that far." Gus looked at him skeptically. "Granted I could probably tell you what he looks like, but I can't remember his name or anything."

Gus huffed out a frustrated breath, "Fine, but you better tell the police everything you know about him. I won't have you holding out on me when people are dying." He pointed to the body and James felt his stomach almost go again.

"Fine fine fine! I won't hold out on you anymore." James turned his head away and wondered what the universal repercussions would be if he told them what was going to happen, then he realized something, and started to laugh.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"I don't know why I didn't think of it before. With the bits that I know, I can keep up the psychic stuff. Shawn probably would have seen something to give them the killer's description too. It weirdly works out." James chuckled more at the irony.

"You've got problems." Gus stated, but smiled too.

They were still grinning when both Carlton and Juliet showed up with Woody and his body bag, ready to process the newest crime scene.

* * *

** REAL:**

Shawn hadn't meant to blurt everything out, least of all to Carlton's doppelganger. Once he'd realized he wasn't in Kansas anymore, and exactly what this place _was_, he freaked out. Internally, of course, but Shawn guessed all he needed was someone asking what was wrong for him to explode.

During his digging, he'd spotted a few scripts and promotional items with the Psych logo, put two and two together, carried the five and divided by forty two and came up with the horrible conclusion that everything he'd ever known, was some kind of TV program. Worst day ever.

He was honestly surprised how similar everyone looked to his friends. As in exactly similar. Shawn was under the assumption that if you were going to be an evil, or in Carlton's case; caring and friendly, twin... they should at least have mustaches to differentiate them. Then he had to stop himself from picturing Jules with a mustache. Laughing in the middle of a mental break down would only make him look more crazy.

As it was, this Tim guy was definitely looking at him like he'd lost a few brain cells from his little bump on the head.

"Okay then... Shawn. You mind telling me how you got here then?" Shawn rolled his eyes, he was obviously being humored. The problem was though, he didn't know enough about this James guy to prove that he wasn't him.

"Um... I'm not exactly sure about that." Shawn admitted. He put his finger to his head and once again remembered what he'd done right before hitting the curtain...

_Shawn fiddled with the necklace in his hand as he walked, before shrugging and putting it on. "Hey Gus! How do I look! This really matches my eyes."_

"The necklace!" He blurted out. "That damn necklace must have had some kind of Ju-Ju. We need to find it." Shawn turned to go back into the set where it had been taken away from him.

Tim caught his arm. "James, listen to yourself. If this is a joke, it's gone to far. You're seriously freaking me out." Shawn was about to protest being held back but Tim continued, "Besides, they probably have that necklace locked up somewhere. You'll get it when we shoot tomorrow."

"You mean I have to be here a whole DAY?" Shawn sagged dramatically onto the car. "This can't get any worse."

Still talking to him like he was an unstable loon, Tim tried another tactic. "How about this, let's go to Joey's, everyone will be there. Maybe you just need to de-stress."

Deciding his best chance was to stick with someone he knew, he didn't have any other choice but to go with him. "Fine, but I zapped over without any cash, so you're buying."

Tim didn't say anything, but motioned to the car and made sure he got in before going around to the driver's side. "Could you do me a favor and _not_ mention the whole being Shawn Spencer thing to anyone at the bar... I really don't want to have my ass kicked for not taking you to the hospital."

"So, why aren't you taking me to the hospital then?" Shawn asked with a raised eyebrow, "You believe me?"

"_No._" Tim said quickly. "It's just... you really _have_ been acting weird, but I can't bring myself to believe you are who you say you are. I just can't. But, I've known you for years James, and you aren't the type to lie about stuff like this."

"Unless I really was Shawn."

"Stop _saying _that!" Tim shouted.

"Well, how the hell am I supposed to prove it to you then?" Shawn threw his hands up in frustration. This conversation kept going in circles.

Tim pursed his lips, "I'm reserving judgment. I'm not saying I believe you... but we'll see."

"Fair enough." Shawn slumped in the seat.

Joey's wasn't far away at all, about fifteen minutes and they were there. It was a smallish restaurant that was right next to a hotel. By the conversation they'd had earlier, Shawn figured that was the one they were staying in. "Not too shabby, I share a room with Maggie right?"

Tim looked at him sharply and Shawn wiggled his eyebrows. "Let's just go inside."

They got out of the car and Shawn froze as he saw his dad approaching them. He gave Tim a look of pure terror, and stiffened when the elder man's arm circled his shoulder. "Hey guys. We've been waiting for you. Maggie just showed up with Franc."

"Hey...man..." Shawn tried to act natural, but it was almost impossible when one of the most uptight and killjoy-ish people you've ever known, is suddenly acting like your best buddy. He wasn't even wearing one of his hideous shirts, just a normal blue polo.

"C'mon, let's get some warm food. I'm really starting to get sick of sandwiches and fruit."

Shawn snorted. At least his appetite seemed to be the same.

Tim impassively watched the exchange, then joined them as they entered. They were greeted by the staff there as if they'd known them for years. _They probably _have_ known them for years._ "Tim! James! The usual?"

Shawn wasn't paying attention and just nodded passively, he was currently taking in all the information he could about the place. Twelve hats, eight waitresses, two bar tenders and thirty patrons, most of which were people he remembered seeing at the set.

Maggie waved them over to a big table with Dulé, and the really tall guy from the set. "Corbin! I didn't know you were coming tonight."

Shawn looked around and realized Maggie was talking to what was supposed to be his dad. _So that's Corbin._

"Yeah, I decided to stay in town. Steve here said he wanted to do some interior house shots with James tomorrow."

_God, I switch worlds and I still have to spend time with my dad._ Shawn thought dejectedly as he sat down next to Maggie. All the grumpy thoughts left his mind when she reached under the table and grasped his hand. He stared at her hand, then turned to look at her, wondering if it would be cheating if she was technically the same person...

"So _Shawn_..." Tim whispered to him with a wide smirk, "Could you tell me how many hats are in the restaurant?" He obviously didn't want the others to hear, but it seemed to Shawn like Carlton's twin was starting to think everything had been a joke all along.

Shawn leaned closer to Tim and whispered back, "Twelve. It will be thirteen in a second once the guy in the fedora comes through the door." Shawn took a drink of his water and waited for the information to sink in.

At first, Tim scoffed and looked at the door. Sure enough, a man with a fedora was just coming in the door. "Wha..."

Shawn ignored him. He was getting sick of proving himself. If he was stuck here, he'd at least enjoy himself, and get some juicy info while he was at it, starting with James' girlfriend. "Maggie, Maggster, Mags... how long have we been together now? It seems like forever."

Maggie looked at him with a smirk, "Eight _interesting_ years, you know that." She chided playfully.

Shawn smiled, "Yeah, I just like hearing you say it." Inside, Shawn was raging that James had five more years with his dream girl than he had with Juliet. _So not fair._

"You've been a bit off today, are you feeling alright?" She looked at him concerned.

Shawn choked on the water he was drinking and coughed a few times and Maggie rubbed his back till he was done. More and more people were noticing he was acting weird. It was becoming obvious that James was nothing like him. _Probably a nerd or something._ "I'm fine. Been a long day."

"Okay, just checking." Maggie kissed him chastely on the cheek and Shawn thought, _Jules is going to kill me._

Once their food came, Shawn tried to focus on eating and not on parallel universes, the food was pretty good. He'd almost started to relax, but that plan was blown to bits when a couple teenage girls approached the table. "Hey, could we get your autograph?"

Smiles abounded at the table and each one took turns signing the girls' napkin, that being the only thing they had on them at the time. They graciously thanked each one, but when they got to him they each blushed bright red. "James Roday, we love all your episodes!"

"Really?" Shawn was starting to think he could get used to fame. People seemed to be really nice to him.

"Yeah! The Yin and Yang trilogy was the best!" Shawn gripped the pen he was using to sign the napkin so hard it made cracking noises and he quickly finished signing so he wouldn't break the damn thing.

Shawn handed the napkin back and looked up at the girls, doing his best to remain outwardly calm. "I'm sorry, _which_ episodes exactly?"

"The one where Yang almost blew up your mom, that was so awesome!"

The other girl nodded, "Mary's death scene was so sad! You are a great actor!"

"The part where Abby broke up with you."

"And when Gus was almost killed!"

His fears confirmed, Shawn got up quickly from the table. "Nice meeting you... I'll be right back."

Everyone watched with questioning looks as he rose from the table and hurried out the door. He couldn't deal with this right now. It was one thing to realize your life may be a TV show, but another to realize that the most horrible moments in your entire life were used for entertainment. He felt sick.

Once he was outside, he stood in the doorway and rubbed his upper lip. It had taken a long time, and a lot of Juliet, to get over that last bout with Yin. Then with Yang's death that year... it was too much. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Tim there.

"Go away."

"No." Tim stubbornly stayed where he was. "James... he would never walk out on fans like that. Especially when they were talking about his favorite episodes. The ones that he directed himself."

"Well then this James is a sadistic bastard with no heart." Shawn's voice broke, so he stopped talking. He was a man damn it. Guys didn't cry in front of other guys. Unless you were Gus.

Tim came in front of him, "James isn't sadistic. He put his heart and soul into those episodes and they were his favorite because it showed a different side of you. It showed that underneath the childish facade, there is the heart of a real detective." He poked Shawn right over his heart.

Okay, stroking his ego wasn't the worst thing Tim could have done, but Shawn was still very bitter about the whole experience. He then realized that Tim had been referring to James as "James" and not "you."

"Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you finally believe me?" Shawn looked at Tim hopefully. God, if he could get someone to believe him, it would make things so much easier. He really missed Gus at that moment. Gus would believe him in a second.

Tim gave him a scrutinizing look, "If I say yes, will you drop the dummy act and be straight with me?"

"Look, I know there's a lot of sexual tension between us but I've always been strai−" Shawn stopped when he saw a glare that was almost distinctively Lassitarian. Sarcasm was his coping mechanism, but if this guy knew him enough to call him on his BS, he'd really have to play it straight. "Okay, fine. If you agree to help me get back home, I'll keep the theatrics to a minimum."

Tim extended his hand to shake, but Shawn grabbed it and curled it into a ball before bumping it with his fist. "That's how I roll."

* * *

**END NOTES: Finally! Tim believes him... kinda. I tried to make the theme in this one the guys having to be truthful with their confidants about what they know in order to get back home. **


	6. Behind the Scenes

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Note to my Anonymous reviewers: I try to reply to all the reviews I get but can't with you guys, but I just wanted to let you guys know that you are awesome. Thanks a ton to: The Potato Salad, Violet Eternity, Cupcake and PsychO99.**

**Also, sorry to everyone for taking so long. Switched jobs and I don't get to write all night on the weekends anymore. Plus, I had a finale video to finish and that ate up a lot of time! :(**

**Hope this was worth the wait.**

* * *

**Chapter 6- Behind the Scenes**

**PSYCH**

"Well, the body is fresh. I can tell you that." Woody stated the obvious and took another lick of his popsicle. He then used it to point at the pooled blood around the dead man's head, which had been hidden underneath the ransacked files along with the body. "It looks like his skull was smashed in with something large and round."

Juliet and Carlton, who had been standing nearby James and Gus watching Woody work, started to look around for the missing murder weapon.

When they arrived, Juliet had immediately run over to make sure James was okay. Gus had curled his lip and give James the 'stink eye' until he'd moved away from her and back to his side. He'd be damned if some imposter, cool as he was, tried to get 'up in there' with his best friend's girlfriend.

It seemed James hadn't been listening to Woody at all. He just kept staring at the dead man on the floor. Gus elbowed him to get his attention away from the body, ignoring the grunt of pain at the action. "Dude, this is where you're supposed to find the evidence _before_ the police."

"_I know!_" James hissed back at him. "I can't remember..." His eyes lit up and he raised his hand. "I have a question!"

Everyone turned to look at James.

"If he had a gun, why didn't he shoot this guy? Why bash him on the head? None of the other victims were shot either."

Carlton looked contemplative for a moment. "Because the gun belonged to the store." Carlton walked over to where the body was, "He must have come in, grabbed something from the counter, and smacked the guy in the head. He probably found the gun when he was digging through everything."

Juliet's eyes brightened, "You must have walked in before he could finish searching, so maybe he didn't find what he was looking for."

"Which means he's probably going to try again."

Gus didn't like the way James said that. "How do we know he didn't just realize he couldn't find it, and just... gave up or something."

Carlton raised a lip. "I know these scum sucking lowlifes. Whoever this is, he..." Juliet cleared her throat. "... or she, is not going to give up that easily. Hopefully we can get some prints off of this stuff... goddamn it Strode! You're getting that crap all over the evidence!"

As Carlton when to go hit Woody upside the head with his own popcicle, Juliet grabbed Shawn's hand. "After we wrap this up the chief said we could go home. How bout a couple bags of popcorn and a movie?"

_Aw hell no!_ Before James could say anything, Gus covered his mouth. "I'm sorry Juliet. We have a couple of _leads_ we need to check up on at the office." Gus hoped the other man would get the hint.

James rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, sorry I was going to tell you."

It wasn't hard to see the disappointment in Juliet's face. It looked like she'd really been looking forward to a relaxing night. "Alright. I need to get up early tomorrow, so I'll see you at the station then."

She walked off and James pursed his lips. "She doesn't look happy."

Shrugging, Gus replied, "She's used to it. Shawn and I have a lot of movie marathons at Psych when we're supposed to be working. Most of the time it's because he solved the case already, and wants to get paid for a few extra days."

"Yeah but look," James pointed at Juliet as she walked up and got in between the game of keep away that had ensued after Carlton had tried to take Woody's treat from him. "She's a great girl, why wouldn't he want to spend time with her?"

"Don't ask me! You're supposed to be Shawn, remember?" He griped as they walked out of the store.

James looked down frowning. "I guess man." Gus was about to go around the Blueberry to the driver's side, when he noticed James' eyes narrow and he made Shawn's 'It's a clue' face. His mouth opened and he pointed at Gus' foot. "Gus! Look at the paper stuck to your shoe!"

He hadn't noticed anything stuck to his shoe, but when he took it off, he saw why James was so excited. "Marsha Kingsley... green stone necklace. Suggested retail price..." Gus made a face, "Ten dollars!? Why the hell would a store like this have a necklace worth ten dollars?" He also thought it was kind of creepy that out of the hundreds of receipts and papers in that store, the one they needed just happened to stick to his shoe.

James reached in his pocket and pulled out the necklace getting a good look at it, "Those bastards. They were ripping the person off. They were probably going to sell this for a lot of money, and only give the person the ten dollars."

"Nine dollars," Gus corrected, "The seller's get ten percent commission."

"Who cares! The point is, this whole think could have been about a good ol' fashioned rip off and not because this necklace has some kind of voodoo curse. For all we know it's the original seller that ended up trying to whack these guys and take the receipt so there wouldn't be anything linking them to the crimes."

Gus thought it was a pretty good theory, then noticed a red splotch in the shape of a shoe print on the paper. "Uh, is this blood?" It was probably what made it stick to his shoe in the first place. He immediately dropped the paper and started wiping the bottoms of his feet on the grass of the boulevard. "Damn it I paid ninety bucks for these!"

"How on sale were they?" James gave him a smirk.

Gus, still too grumpy from the blood snapped, "Shut up Shawn!"

Both men stood in silence. Gus felt instantly ashamed and James looked more taken aback then anything. "I−I'm sorry, I didn't…"

James waved him off. "It's okay. I get it."

Gus took a deep breath. He'd been holding a lot back considering the circumstances but he really couldn't hold everything in anymore. James seemed like a nice enough guy, but he had to lay down some ground rules when it came to living Shawn's life, or at least _pretending_ to live it. "Look, I know it's been weird and all for you but you have to understand, having you around creeps me out."

"Thanks…" James deadpanned with a frown.

"No, really. Not you personally, just the fact that there is another world out there with people that look like us... it's creepy. Really creepy."

James turned away grumpily and got into the vehicle, slamming the door and making Gus wince. He did his best to get the rest of blood off his shoe before getting in himself.

"So, where the hell am I supposed to stay then?" James said with unhidden frustration as Gus was buckling up.

"We'll go to the office. You can sleep on the couch there. Hopefully we can get something on this necklace before morning. I still have work."

The Psych office wasn't far away. It sat near the end of Santa Barbara's biggest and busiest pier. It was also responsible for Shawn and Gus being able to spend days at Psych without ever having to go more than ten feet away from their front door. Vendors were a beautiful thing.

"Wow." James looked at the building. "It's bigger than I thought it would be. The set is actually pretty tiny."

"Well, it used to be small, but then we expanded to the whole building." Gus remembered how Shawn told him they were expanding. By _told_ he meant more like almost dropping a wall on him and shouting "TA DA!"

James walked up to the door, but had to wait for Gus to unlock it. Gus made a note to get him a key... but then thought about what that meant. It meant James would be here for a long time, and Shawn might not get back.

"You okay?"

Gus blinked and realized he was still sticking his key in the lock and hadn't moved. "I'm _fine_." He stressed before calmly walking in. He watched James look around for a few minutes before his eyes settled on the stress toy on Shawn's desk.

"Winky! Oh man you have Winky!" He rushed over and picked up the little toy and squeezed it. The eyes popped out and it made James smile. "Nice to have _something_ familiar around here."

Gus started up his computer and waved a dismissing hand. "Shawn plays with that thing way too much."

"The one thing I want when the show ends. Is this." *squeak*

Gus flashed him an angry look. He didn't want to think of what would happen to them if the show ended. The whole situation gave him a headache and reminded him of the movie "The Nines." Would the world end when the show ended, or were they separate entities all together, and just happened to be strangely connected. His pondering was rudely interrupted when "Winky" hit him square on the noggin.

"Gus, you look like your head is going to explode. I think you need this more than I do."

That actually made Gus chuckle before getting back to business. "I don't get it. Who would make a necklace that switched people... especially when chance that the same two people would wear it at the same time is astronomically low."

James opened Shawn's computer and booted it up. "Well alright Einstein," James smirked, "Let's check and see just how astronomically bad my luck is."

"You know that's right."

"Uh, Gus?"

"What?"

"I don't know Shawn's password..."

* * *

**REAL**

After they went back into Joey's restaurant, Tim watched as... "Shawn"... picked at his food and smiled politely at the banter from the others at the table, but never participating.

He was torn. Really really torn about whether or not he believed that the man across from him was the real Shawn Spencer. It just wasn't possible... but everything from the way he spoke, to the way he ate, and had refused to get anything stronger than a lemonade, was just plain weird. Then there was the hats and the way he'd reacted to the fans. James had always said that talking to fans was his favorite thing about shooting, which is why the red flags in Tim's mind went off when he'd stormed outside.

"James, you're awfully quiet." Maggie leaned over to Shawn and put her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, uh." Shawn's eyes met Tim's as he tried to come up with an excuse. "I'm a bit tired. Been a long day."

She made a pouty face and asked, "You wanna head up and get some sleep? We have to shoot early tomorrow."

Sarcastic groans sounded from around the table. Everyone knew they had to shoot early, but they'd been having fun and had almost forgotten the time.

Tim agreed that it was getting late, but then the thought occurred to him that Maggie was about to go home with Shawn Spencer, and not her real boyfriend. He wasn't worried that Shawn would _do_ anything to her… probably, but the look on his face told Tim that he wasn't even sure he should go with her either.

Sighing, Tim made the decision that he wasn't going to leave Shawn to the wolves. The guy had just gotten smacked into the middle of nowhere, and to tell the truth, Tim felt sorry for him.

"Hey _James_." Tim emphasized so Shawn would get the point that he was playing along. It took Shawn a second to remember Tim was talking to him, and he headed over.

"What's up?"

"I have a couple things to show you at my apartment tonight." Tim whispered and Shawn leaned back away from him, with a puzzled look.

"Um, you know I was kidding when I made the sexual tension comment…"

It took a moment for Tim to realize how much of a creeper he sounded like. Shawn didn't really know a thing one about him so he didn't blame him for assuming. "NO! No no no! It's nothing like that. I just have some stuff to tell you if you're going to be here a while, and I figure it gives you an out with Maggie."

"Ooooh… okay." Shawn nodded and looked at Maggie. "I'll take care of this."

Tim watched as Shawn went across the parking lot and up to Maggie before gesturing wildly in his direction. No doubt he was making up some grand excuse for not going home with her tonight. He felt a churning of guilt in his gut when her face fell, but she nodded and before Shawn could react she caught him off guard and kissed him on the mouth.

Shawn seemed to be into it for a brief second before his eyes shot open and he tactfully tried to back off. It didn't stop Tim from giving him a harsh glance when he returned.

With a guilty look, Shawn cleared his throat. "Ahem... so, ready?"

They went up to Tim's third floor apartment and were immediately greeted by his dog Lucy. He'd been able to bring her this time and had been good company for him while away from his family. After making kissy noises he looked up to find Shawn staring at him incredulously.

"What?"

"I just... never thought I'd see that. Carlton really needs to loosen up more."

A tinge embarrassed, Tim brought him the rest of the way inside the small apartment. He pulled out his computer chair and motioned for Shawn to sit down at his laptop.

Staring at it, Shawn looked less than impressed. "We have these over there too ya know."

Frowning, Tim griped, "Just... sit down!"

Shawn flopped bonelessly into the computer chair with a pout, crossing his arms.

Tim brought up Netfix and queued up Psych. "I thought you might want to see this, before you have any more surprises."

Shawn quickly scanned through all the titles and scoffed. "Who comes up with these names?"

"Mostly the writers. We find out what they are called when we get the scripts."

Continuing to read through the summaries, Shawn commented. "Dude, they miss so much!"

Tim frowned and leaned in closer to see what he was looking at. "Like what?"

"Well, there's the case where Gus and I had to go to a pet store and stopped a cat-napper."

_Cat-napper..._Tim stared at him blankly.

"It's a lot more interesting than it sounds!" Shawn defended, "Gus found out he was allergic to cats and I got three stitches while rescuing the dang things." Shawn held up his arm and showed off a scar. One that he was sure James didn't have.

"Point taken..." Tim replied thoughtfully. While Shawn continued to page through things, he went and grabbed a couple beers as he mulled things over in his head. Once he'd started noticing the details, it was glaringly obvious that despite looking exactly the same, Shawn and James were not only two different people personality wise, but physically too. That had to mean something.

"Wow," Shawn's voice and nervous chuckle caught his attention again. "They do have some details in here..." He took a swig of the beer Tim had brought before his eyes widened and he choked on it mid swallow. After a coughing fit he started furiously typing. "Oh my God... please no... no no no."

"What is it?!" Tim thought that something must have been horribly wrong, but then Shawn narrowed down his search and focused in on a certain episode. He stifled a chuckle as Shawn exclaimed 'AHA!' and began to skip through it. Maggie and James had mentioned to him how weird it was to shoot the scene, and he figured Shawn would be wondering just how much the show had shown of his and Juliet's first make-out session.

"They stop at the car." He stated.

Shawn looked up with a glimmer of hope. "The car?"

"Yeah. They don't go past the car. You're dignity is intact. We're a cable TV show... not HBO."

Sagging back in the chair, Shawn breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God."

Tim grimiced. He didn't want to think what Shawn was so relieved they hadn't shown.

"Hmmm... Elvis. I think kissing in front of a whole bunch of people would have been a lot more romantic if that were actually playing at the time." Shawn smirked. Tim snorted and drank his beer.

He watched for the next hour as Shawn laughed and grumbled his way through a bunch of episodes, hovering over "Santabarbaratown" for a moment, but refusing to click on it. Tim didn't blame him.

Tim looked at his watch, it was after midnight. He really needed to get some sleep, but doubted Shawn would want to. "So, I'll leave you to it. We worked till two AM last night and I'm beat. There are some energy drinks and more beers in the fridge if you want."

"Okay man... and Tim?" Tim stopped and looked at Shawn. "Thanks."

His lips curled up in a smirk and he nodded before heading to his bedroom.

He did end up waking in the middle of the night though, and just happened to find Shawn surrounded by Red Bulls with Lucy on his lap and the Netflix player paused at a picture of Juliet's smiling face.

* * *

**PSYCH**

Light filtered through the Psych window, causing the PSYCH logo's shadow to project over the back wall. James stretched and opened his mouth wide in a giant yawn. He rolled over to put his arm around Maggie, but realized too late to not fall off that couch that he wasn't in his apartment. With a painful *THUNK* he landed on his front, knocking the wind out of him.

"Oooooowwww!" James painfully whined as he got off his stomach and to his knees. He was still in the Psych office. He looked around for Gus, but remembered that the pharmaceutical salesman went home after a couple hours of searching. They found a few things about talismans and voodoo, but nothing specifically about the necklace. Go figure.

It frustrated him that they were still not any closer to finding a way to get him home. He missed his girlfriend, and as fun as it was to play Shawn Spencer, he knew it wasn't all that fun to BE him. He couldn't do it. He didn't _want _to do it. He stood up and paced the room, trying to get his head right and figure out how to catch the murderer and wring some information out of him. _Maybe I just need to sling accusations around until I get the right one._ James snorted in amusement.

First things first, he had to get a hold of Gus. He took the Psych phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial. The phone rang a few times but Gus didn't answer. _He's probably still sleeping._ James was about to leave a message when he heard the click of the phone being picked up. "Hey Gus, I'm awake..."

_"Do you have the necklace?"_

A shiver went down James' spine. That definitely wasn't Gus' voice. "Who is this!?"

_"Bring the necklace to the Red Robin on State Street or the black man is history."_

If the situation wasn't so dire, James would have rolled his eyes, _Of course it had to be STATE STREET..._ "What time?" James growled into the receiver.

_"You have one hour."_ The line then went dead.

James hung his head and gripped the phone in frustration. The _one_ person who he could talk to and knew what was happening, just got kidnapped. Figures. There was only one thing he could do. He needed to get to that Red Robin, but he needed help too.

He mentally checked off the people who would help him, and perhaps believe him and came up with only one name. He groaned loudly and dialed the number, knowing that desperate times called for desperate measures.

When the gruff voice answered... James stumbled over the greeting, "Hey Hen...er Dad. I need some help."

* * *

**END NOTES: :) I know. I'm evil, but James has to deal with this stuff since it happens to Shawn all the time.**

**BTW, the link for the video that caused this chapter to be late is in my profile. Chalk full of Shules Proposal goodness. *Don't watch unless you have seen the finale*  
**


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